JEEZ! Talk about Magnum P.I. copying The Rockford Files!
AM
friend is stalked by a psycho from work. Pretty much identical to the
Kathryn Harrold episode of TRF.
The amazing thing is that they even had the audacity to use the same actor
to portray the psycho!!!
Adam H. Kerman
Did you note the scriptwriter? I wonder if the writer sold a used script to
another show. It's been known to happen. Casting the same actor sure sounds
suspicious. "Let's recreate a Rockford episode." Wonder if Jim punched anyone.
AGCLARKSON
Attorney lady friend is stalked by a psycho from work. Pretty much identical to
same actor to portray the psycho!!!"
That actor playing the psycho would need to be John Pleshette.
Boy, what a money-saver, huh? Rip off the TRF storyline, then use the same
actor already familiar with the behaviors and maybe even some of the lines in
the plaigerised version of the TRF ep..
Cigars all around in the Studio suits' conference room. Economics coup.
Ah, originality and creativity is encouraged in filmdom. (Not!)
Instad, Hack writing 101.
Ruined the money-hard-up Fitzgerald and Faulkner. Not to mention Isherwood.
"Audacity" in the plagiarism? Maybe. Or maybe more like a calm, detached
matter-of-fact cynicism toward the tv audience? Maybe not much audacity, let
alone any twinge in concscience for doing the plaigerism.
As in, If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Puts those butts in the seats, doesn't
it? Variations: It always works, doesn't it? or, Hey, it worked the last time,
didn't it?
So: Maybe we have the following: Together with the Almighty Deadline driviing
teleplays together with the rareness of authentic originality among
screenwriters and/or the squelching of originality through heavy-handed
management in favor of sincerest-flattery plagiarism favored by the risk-averse
studio types ("If it ain't broke, don't fix it".)
Who did that Magnum teleplay--did you catch that?
If it wasn't Chase, maybe he should sue. (Just kidding. Sort of.)
Reminds me of Hollywood and Cinderella:
"Pretty Woman." Richard Gere as Prince.
"Sabrina." Harrison Ford as Prince.
"The Prince And Me."
"Maid In Manhattan." Ralph Thiennes as Prince
"Working Girl."
"Happy Times (musical within "New York, New York")
"An Officer And A Gentleman" (Debra Winger rescued at the excrutiatingly last
minute [natch] from her grungy factory job by the Prince, Richard Gere.
(Richard Grere has made a career of being The Prince, no?)
"Divine Secrets Of The YaYa Sisterhood" (A variation of the Cinderella
myth:Cinderella seen in later years as a frustrated sodden old shrill alcoholic
who punishes Jim Garner, JG playing here a mannikin from Lifetime Channel and
the substitute for the dead Prince, that dead Prince the old alkie's fiance
killed in their youthful courtship days in his Hellcat fighter plane in WW2 and
thereby leaving JG as the second-rate fall-back husband [though an excellent
provider and dependable] and [in the logic of chick-films] the deservedly
punished victim for not dashingly measuring up to the dead Prince and instead
pursuing his dull pedestrian amassing of a fortune, creating the frustrated
Cinderella's Disappointment amidst her Cadillac and palatial mansion.)
Ad nauseam. The steady procession out of Hollywood of Cinderrella ficks, that
is.
So: as you show, TRF has been payed a sincerest flattery by MPI.
To be expected, I guess.
RNeill has already pointed out the "Trouble In Chapter 17" example of MPI
ripping off TRF. Adam has shown the TRF larger overall storyline imitation by
MPI.
Probably there are more.
RNeill22
>Did you note the scriptwriter? I wonder if the writer sold a used script to
>another show.
According to epguides, the Magnum episode was written by Chris Abbot-Fish.
>>The amazing thing is that they even had the audacity to use the same actor
>>to portray the psycho!!!
The X-Files did that a lot, too, especially in its first few seasons. It would
pilfer and regurgitate a story idea from some movie or TV show and then cast
the same actor who had appeared in the original.
AM
> >same actor to portray the psycho!!!"
>
> That actor playing the psycho would need to be
> John Pleshette.
Yes - it was John Pleshette. I did not know the that actor's name before,
but that particular name was in the opening MPI credits.
Erich Wise
"Adam H. Kerman" <a...@chinet.chinet.com> wrote in message
news:_aSdnSigar5...@newedgenetworks.com...
> AM <n...@coverd.com> wrote:
>
> >I just watched an episode of MPI in which Magnum's District Attorney lady
> >friend is stalked by a psycho from work. Pretty much identical to the
> >Kathryn Harrold episode of TRF.
>
> >The amazing thing is that they even had the audacity to use the same
actor
> >to portray the psycho!!!
>
> Did you note the scriptwriter? I wonder if the writer sold a used script
to
> another show. It's been known to happen.
There is an episode of "Switch" (also from Universal) from 1975 that bears a
similarity to Rockford's "This Case Is Closed."
Called "Death by Resurrection" it opens with Robert Wagner and Eddie Albert
arriving home from the airport and later a flashback recalls what led up to
that point. The fact that "John Thomas James" wrote both episodes might
explain it. :)
jwhat...@gmail.com
Hollywood legend has it the two have had a series run in before for the same thing. Jim Garner didnt mess around with being disrespected.